


we've got this gift of love

by highvalyrian



Series: it's a long way down, but i have you by my side [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Birthday Presents, Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Good Sibling Jonathan Byers, Implied Relationships, Jonathan Byers-centric, Minor Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Minor Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Multi, Nancy Wheeler is a Scorpio, Photographer Jonathan Byers, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 06:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19941763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highvalyrian/pseuds/highvalyrian
Summary: Jonathan wants to buy a nice gift for Nancy's 18th birthday, but without a large budget, he struggles.------------------------------------------------------------------------Based upon a prompt by @fallingstar95 on Tumblr.The title is from a quote by John Lennon.





	we've got this gift of love

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments! I love and literally thrive on your feedback and it's awesome reading your thoughts on the piece.

Jonathan was never one for buying gifts before he started dating Nancy. To be frank, he wasn’t even a fan of receiving them. It was awkward when he got something cheap from his mom, not that he minded, while Will got the presents of more value. The only exception was on his fourteenth birthday when he got his camera, but most other years he got a new shirt and some other clothes Joyce thought would look good on him.

Of course, Nancy was the opposite. She always told him, even before they were dating, how much she loved getting presents. And now that her birthday was just around the corner, Jonathan was beating himself up for not buying her a gift sooner.

He was away in Maine with the rest of the Byers-Hopper family, wading through the local mall as he searched frantically for any store that caught his eye. Behind him were Will and Eleven, who he was forced to drag along since Joyce was working at the town pharmacy.

“Can we get some ice cream?” Will called out from behind him. Jonathan turned around, both annoyed with Will’s disruption to his task and confused as to why he would want ice cream in the middle of November.

Eleven, who was walking beside him, nodded eagerly. “Yes!”

“Not unless you can help me find a gift,” Jonathan said in frustration, growing annoyed with their uselessness. He wasn’t mad at them for being kids, in fact on a normal day he would gladly take them to the shop, but today he needed to get this gift.

Will groaned and looked to his side, noticing a jewelry shop. “There.” Jonathan turned his head and quickly rushed towards the place, only hoping the thumping footsteps behind him were from Eleven and Will.

When he arrived at the front, the first thing that caught his eye was a pearl necklace. There was a diamond one beside it, but Nancy was not too fond of shining objects or standing out in a crowd. In fact, pearls would have worked the best on her because she does prefer their color.

A man stood behind the counter and Jonathan took a few steps towards him. “How much is the pearl necklace?”

“The pearls?” The man looked towards where Jonathan pointed, showing him the display. “Ah, those. Three hundred.”

“Sorry?”

“Three hundred dollars.” He seemed irritated. “Don’t fit your budget?”

Jonathan shook his head. His budget was honestly less than twenty dollars, but it was a stretch to think he could find anything really special for that price.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, kid. If you want something cheaper, we have a few earrings which might look good.”

“No, that’s okay. Thanks, though.”

The Byers all left the shop, and Jonathan proceeded to continue his search. He wasn’t a girl and really didn’t know what Nancy would want. The only one who would have a clue would be Eleven, but only because of her connection to Mike. Jonathan turned to her.

“Can you talk to Mike?” he asked her. Eleven, though confused, shook her head and Jonathan groaned in annoyance. “If I get you and Will ice cream, can you ask him a few things for me?”

Her eyes lit up. “Yeah!” The two kids raced off towards the shop, and Jonathan shook his head with an exhale of a laugh, following after them. In his pocket, he could feel the building weight of coins, which he had hoped would be enough for a gift.

Of course, it wasn’t. And now he was spending this on ice cream. He wasn’t going to have much at all left for her.

“I want chocolate,” Will demanded. He pointed towards the menu board above the register.

Jonathan turned towards El. “Same.”

There was a blond man behind the counter, looking bored out of his mind. Most people weren’t buying ice cream in the fall, and it seemed especially odd for the dark clothed teen to be buying it for two bouncy kids. “Two chocolates?” he said in a dull voice. Jonathan nodded. Quickly, the man started to prepare, hoping that it would be a quick few scoops and he could continue back with his lounging about.

Once Will and El got their ice cream, the group sat down on a bench just outside the shop. Jonathan, looking in his pockets, could now only count about twelve dollars. That surely wasn’t enough to buy Nancy anything good, but maybe El could find out exactly what she wanted that wasn’t so overpriced.

The group exited the mall as soon as the kids finished their ice cream. On the drive home, Jonathan’s leg was growing shaky with nerves. He wasn’t sure what he’d hear from Mike or even Nancy if she came on the line.

After pulling into the driveway, they all rushed over to the nearest phone in the kitchen. Their mom wasn’t home, still at work, and so they were quite loud and clumsy as they all tried to dial the number at once.

It started ringing.

And ringing.

Silence, other than the phone, filled the room. “ _Hello?_ ” Mike answered.

They all exhaled a breath. “Mike,” El replied back. They could all hear Mike’s chuckle at the end of the line.

“ _Are you with someone?_ ” He asked. Jonathan took a step back, surely scared that Mike could hear his breathing on the other end of the line. “ _Is Will there with you?_ ”

“I’m here.” Thank God Will was there to cover for him. “Hey, Mike.”

“ _Oh my God, I haven’t heard from you in forever! I wish you were here right now. Both of you. Dustin has only been talking with Suzie and Steve, and Lucas hasn’t had any time to talk with me since he’s been with Max. School’s just not the same without you, Will. And home’s not the same without-_ “

“Mike,” El cut him off. “I have a question.”

There was silence from Mike’s end, and Will shot Eleven a confused glance. He obviously wanted to hear Mike finish, but El wanted to address Jonathan’s issue.

She continued, taking the Wheeler’s silence for an answer. “Nancy’s birthday is soon, right?”

“ _Like three days away. Why?_ ”

“What gifts does she want?”

It almost sounded like Mike dropped the phone, and they all cringed at a sharp and loud noise. “ _Are you guys coming back to Hawkins?_ ” he asked in excitement. Without answering, Mike shouted in the distance, “ _Nancy! Mom! The Byers are coming back to Hawkins!_ ”

There was a tumble, a crash, and a few other garbled noises Jonathan couldn’t make out. “ _Mike, give me the phone!_ ” It was Nancy’s voice which Jonathan could recognize any day. “ _You’re such a bitch, give it to me!_ ”

He was still hopeful the Wheelers didn’t know he was listening to their conversation, and so Jonathan waited for their dispute to end before signaling Eleven to keep talking. “Mike? Are you there?”

“ _Eleven?_ ” It was Nancy again. “ _Is Jonathan with you?_ ”

Well shit, there goes his silent plan. He exchanged glances with Will, unsure of what to do. His brother shrugged, looking back to the phone.

El, who was also as anxious as him, turned back and mouthed a question to him, reaching to give him the phone. “ _El?_ ”

“Yeah?” Her voice had a slight break to it, and she coughed to try and cover it up.

“ _Is Jonathan there?_ ” There was no way he was getting out of this situation without having a conversation, and so he sucked in a breath and grabbed the phone.

“Hey, Nancy.”

Jonathan could hear her exhale, a deep breath that she probably was holding for quite a bit. “ _Are you really coming back to Hawkins? Mike can be a little bitch – hey! – and probably just decided to prank me, but…_ ” Her voice trailed off, waiting for his reply hopefully. The Byers son leaned against the kitchen wall and pressed the phone to his ear.

“Yeah. Yeah, we’re coming.”

The two shared a silent pause, but Jonathan was sure Nancy was smiling at the end of her line. On their calls, besides talking about her upcoming birthday she always said how much she wants him to go back down to Indiana and visit her. Of course, there was already a plan in place, but Jonathan wanted to surprise her, so he always replied with, “Yeah, me too.”

El tugged at his shirt, beckoning to take the phone back. “Can Mike come back on? I was talking to him.”

“ _Jonathan,_ ” she said before he handed El the phone back, “ _call me on your other phone. Right now._ ”

He quickly handed the phone to El, mouthing to get Mike to tell her a gift idea, while he rushed to the living room and dialed the Wheeler number into the pad. Nancy picked up almost instantly, speaking before he even had a chance to open his mouth. “ _You’re alone?_ ”

Jonathan nodded but realized it wasn’t a face-to-face conversation and she couldn’t see him. “Yeah.”

“ _I can’t believe I get to see you again_.” She sounded breathless, and Jonathan slightly chuckled into the phone. “ _When was the last time I saw you? Graduation?_ ”

“I think,” he said and remembered the whole drive back to Hawkins and how nervous he felt. That day he spent the night over at the Wheelers, a whole evening with Nancy, and it felt perfect. “Now you’re home for Thanksgiving from Yale. How’s everything going there?”

“ _Oh my God, it’s so amazing. I’m sorry our calls have been so short lately. It’s just been so busy, with coming back home and all the work I have-_ “

“Don’t worry about it.” At the Maine College of Art, he didn’t have nearly as much work to do as Nancy did. Of course, if they switched places he’d surely drop out of school. “It’s a break, relax. And I’m coming to see you for your birthday.”

This year Nancy’s birthday was on the day after Thanksgiving, which meant that it was probable he would get to stay over again at her place. It was like a pattern. He and his family would go to Indiana for Thanksgiving and celebrate Nancy’s birthday around the same time, and when it was close to Jonathan’s birthday around Christmas (despite their family not celebrating because they were Jewish), the Wheelers would come up to Maine.

“ _I have bags under my eyes,_ ” she sighed. Jonathan chuckled, his cheek hitting slightly into the phone. “ _That’s what college did to me_.”

College in Maine wasn’t too much of a struggle. If he was being honest, it wasn’t a challenging school for him. He was majoring in photography, while Nancy was majoring in English. It was quite a different workload, he assumed.

“I’m sure you still look great.” Jonathan was not one for giving out compliments, but the ones he did share were genuine. Nancy laughed at the end of the line, and something told Jonathan that she was probably flushed. The Wheeler didn’t blush often, but his compliments always seemed to do the trick.

“ _So…_ ” she began, and Eleven came running into the room. “ _When are you coming over?_ ”

Her hands were raised, waving them frantically as if she was trying to get his attention. Jonathan didn’t reply to Nancy, instead holding his hand over the base of the phone and whisper-shouting “What?” to her multiple times.

All Eleven did was keep mumbling some nonsense he couldn’t understand and, with a regretful sigh, he pressed the phone to his ear. “We’re leaving tomorrow morning. I have to go. Eleven’s being a bother.”

His sister pouted and feigned hurt but kept continuing to mumble information. “ _Go deal with it. I’ll see you tomorrow hopefully?_ ”

“Yeah. Bye, Nance. Love you.”

“ _Love you too._ ”

He slammed the phone back where it was supposed to be and placed a hand on his hips. Jonathan heard Will’s voice, somewhat excited and happy, coming from the kitchen and he assumed he was still talking to Mike. “What?”

“Mike said she really wants a new dress. Like, a blue one.”

Jonathan groaned, pushing his head against the phone on the wall. He had barely any money left to buy her chocolate, and the gift she really wanted was a dress that would probably cost around a hundred dollars.

“That’s not happening,” he said, partially angry at himself for not having enough money, and partially sad for Nancy’s sake.

He thought about what he would say to her, embarrassed, as he wouldn’t show up with a good gift.

Jonathan was thankful Joyce came back home that day with a card in her hand, as well as a teddy bear, that she found at the pharmacy. With her perks of being a worker and a few sneaky movements around the shop, she was able to secretly smuggle Jonathan a quick and inexpensive gift. Still, he was disappointed as he wanted to buy her something himself.

“Is everyone packed?” his mom shouted that night. “We’re leaving early tomorrow morning and I can’t have any of you complain to me that you forgot something after we leave.”

Jonathan heard the numerous groans from upstairs. Will was in his room, talking either to himself or singing along to a song that played on the radio. El was in her own bedroom too, directly across from Jonathan’s, but he didn’t hear much coming from there.

“We’re all packed!” Jonathan shouted back to her and proceeded to look at his messy suitcase before laying back in his bed and staring up at the ceiling.

Tomorrow was going to be an awkward day.

***

His clock’s alarm went off at three in the morning, and Jonathan was surprised as to how alert he was as he woke up. There was rustling elsewhere in the house, and he assumed Joyce was trying to put everyone’s bags into her small car. In baggy pants and a tight white shirt, Jonathan got out of bed and dragged himself out of his room.

He hoped he didn’t wake up Eleven and Will.

“Do you need help?” he mumbled groggily to his mom as she passed by, hair pulled into a really messy bun and her sleepwear still on.

“Can you bring Will and Eleven to the car? Just… try to keep them sleeping. It’s too early for them to be up. I got their luggage.”

 _It’s too early for me too_ , he thought in annoyance, but Jonathan complied with his mother’s request and moved to Will’s room.

He was sleeping comfortably in the blankets, body turned to one side and his hand pressed firmly under the pillow. Jonathan almost laughed but realized it might have woken him up. Carefully, he scooped his brother into his arms and carried him, with struggle, to his mom’s car.

The door was open, thanks to Joyce, and Jonathan carefully slid Will into the seat. His head was falling, and quickly he pushed it into the corner where it rested somewhat strangely. His mouth was agape, and he shifted slightly, but still Will was fast asleep. Next, he had to get Eleven.

Following what he did before, he moved to the girl’s room and carefully moved her out of the bed, bringing her to the other side of the car and placing her into the seat next to Will.

Eleven’s head was already pushed over, and when Jonathan placed her into the seat her head fell quickly onto Will’s lap. When he saw what happened, Jonathan was planning on fixing it, but after he saw how comfortable El looked and how unphased Will was, he thought against it. Any movement might wake them up, and he couldn’t have his mom yell at him today.

Jonathan got dressed into one of his nicer outfits and brushed his teeth, making sure he looked somewhat decent for when he would see Nancy today. His stomach was growling in hunger, and as his mom ran on by to grab his luggage from his room, he grabbed a banana from the kitchen and made his way to the car.

When the ride started, Joyce and Jonathan talked quietly with each other. It was El who woke up first and quietly took her head off Will’s lap, staring out the window calmly and eating an apple that Jonathan packed for a snack. It took a few more hours for Will to awake, which then caused the talking in the car to grow louder as the kids played in the back.

And so, the drive was long and boring and honestly gave Jonathan the most nervous energy he’d ever felt, thinking about seeing Nancy once more and telling her all about how he couldn’t find her the perfect gift.

At nine o'clock at night, they reached the Wheeler household. Jonathan was already feeling like he would fall asleep in the car, but when he suddenly saw the front door open and the family pour out to greet them, his body seemed to rush with energy.

Nancy and Mike were the two who came out of the house first. There was a childish look that spread on her face once she saw him in the car, and before he could push open the door, she swung it back and jumped forward to embrace him.

“Is it my birthday, or yours?” he laughed, wrapping his arms around her torso. He heard the passenger doors open and then watched as his brother and sister launched themselves at Mike, who struggled with their combined weight and proceeded to fall over onto the grass. Joyce, who got out of the car, laughed pathetically with Karen and Ted as the parents all shook hands and greeted each other warmly.

Nancy leaned back from him, lifting her weight off his body and allowing Jonathan to exit the car and shut the door before pressing a firm kiss to his lips. “I missed you.”

Before he could reply, she grabbed his hand and tugged him inside. “Did you get me something for my birthday?” she asked, her child-like grin growing. “My parents are just planning on taking me out to the movies and letting me shop at the mall, but I didn’t find anything too interesting. How are the shops in Maine?”

Reluctantly, he followed her as they sat down on her bed. Nancy had dragged him all the way into her bedroom but left the door wide open. “They didn’t have much,” he said slowly, “and everything that was perfect for you was too expensive. I got you something small. Sorry, Nance.”

Her smile fell, but it wasn’t because she was receiving a small gift. Her hands met his again, and carefully she squeezed them. “You don’t have to apologize for getting me anything, Jonathan. If I’m being honest, you coming back to Hawkins for my birthday is the best thing I can ask for. I only wanted to see you again.”

A small smile came to his face. “Mike said you wanted a blue dress.”

“Yeah, well,” her eyes rolled playfully, “it’s just a dress. I much prefer your company.”

She leaned forward again, pressing her lips against his once more. It was just perfect, being with the person he loved most. Nancy pulled back, then placed her head on a pillow. Jonathan still sat upright by her feet. “You still want your gift?”

“You’re already here,” she laughed, and Jonathan flushed at the cheesy remark. “Oh my God, that was really cliché. Sorry.”

For the rest of the night, the two talked and chatted about life. It was just nice to be with her, comforted by the fact that she only wanted to see him once more. It was evident, from the way she reached over to touch him every chance she got, and her eagerness to just sit and have a conversation.

It made him feel loved, cherished, and whole. He never felt that before he dated Nancy Wheeler.


End file.
